Hello,
As a pastor, I have conducted a lot of funerals. Even though it might sound a bit morose, funerals are a part of the ministry of which I am glad to be involved. Funerals are a time when all the pretenses of life are stripped off and all you are left with is what it means to be a human being. It doesn’t matter how successful, powerful, beautiful, popular, important, or admired one may be, when I am standing at the graveside and say, “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust”, there is an undeniable leveling to human existence….a leveling that I, as a Christian, believe has been there all along.
Last week, I found myself in a unique place, at a funeral that I was not conducting. It was a funeral for one of the members of the church that I am serving, but since he was also a pastor the funeral was held at a church near the churches he was serving and was conducted by a friend of his in that area. So, I was seated in the packed medium-sized church along with his former parishioners, his friends and family, and a bevy of fellow pastors.
If you have ever been to a funeral of a pastor, you will know that it is a bit different, in that the singing tends to be more robust-er than other funerals. That was certainly the case for this funeral. When it was time for a hymn, even though the hymn may not have been familiar to everyone, the sanctuary rocked.
I happened to be seated toward the rear of the sanctuary amongst people who I did not know….older people who seemed to be former members of this man’s church. The gusto of their singing was a bit less “pastoral”, actually, I could not hear them singing above the rest of the crowd. Seated in the pew in front of me was someone who, by his attire, I concluded was not a pastor. He was dressed in a casual shirt and casual pants. When he took his place in the pew, he struggled due to his limited range of motion. When the congregation was asked to rise if they were able, he remained seated. It was obvious to me that this man was a man whose faith was important to him and likewise was the person whose funeral he was attending, as it was a struggle for him to be there.
As the service was concluding, the organ started the intro to a hymn that is often part of Lutheran funerals for folks a bit older than me, and then we began to sing. “Oh Lord my God. When I in awesome wonder. Consider all the works thy hands have made. I see the stars. I hear the rolling thunder. Thy power throughout the universe displayed.” And then, even though the sanctuary was rumbling with pastors, and this man was sitting in front of me and singing away from my direction, I heard him! “Then sings my soul. My savior God to thee. How great thou art. How great thou art. Then sings my soul. My savior God to thee. How great thou art. How great thou art.”
And when we came to the final verse, “When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation, And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart. Then I shall bow, in humble adoration, And then proclaim: "My God, how great Thou art!", he amplified his voice even more, and I could hear him as if he was singing a solo.
I have no idea of what this man’s life was like…easy or hard, but as I heard him proclaim with blaring bluster these words of faith, I found myself humbled in the shadow of one whose faith overwhelmed the shadow of death in that place. If death thought that it was going to have the last word for the man who had died, death found out that it would not. The last word would be Christ’s. Christ’s whose love and power silenced the voice of death on the day that Jesus walked out of the Easter grave, and likewise silenced in the faith that saturated the voice of the man who sat in front of me as he belittled the power of death by the faith-amplified power in his voice.
Like I said, as a pastor I find funerals events that I am glad to be part of. This funeral included. I left that funeral drenched in the hope of Jesus resurrection having been blessed to have been seated behind someone whose witness of God’s grace was louder and more powerful than a sanctuary full of pastors! Thank you, sir, for your witness.
Have a great week.
God’s grace and peace, (ggap)
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger
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